Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The 2012-13 edition of the Lincoln Stars will take to the ice for the first time this weekend when they participate in the Clyde Iron Cup Tournament, which will be held at the Duluth Heritage Sports Center in Duluth, MN from September 14-15th. Click here to read the official announcement from the USHL.

The Stars are one of four USHL teams that will be in action at this particular preseason tournament. The other three USHL teams participating are the Tri-City Storm, the Sioux City Musketeers, and the Green Bay Gamblers.

The Stars (and each of the other three USHL teams) will play a total of two games over the course of September 14th and 15th. Here's the schedule for the first day of the tournament:

The winning teams from each of the two games I listed above will meet in the Clyde Iron Cup "championship" game on Saturday, September 15th at 2:00pm CST. The two losing teams will meet in the consolation game to take place also on September 15th, at 11:30am CST.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that as fans we'll be able to follow this tournament very well. The Stars have stated that they are not sending radio announcer Mike Melbye to Duluth, MN. I imagine that the other three USHL clubs are also not planning on broadcasting this game over the radio.

The USHL has also said that FASTHockey.com will not be broadcasting any of the tournament games online, which is really unfortunate. I'm unaware of any Stars fans who are making the 9.5 hour north to Duluth to watch the Stars, and if there are any out there who are, I'd love to hear from them. I think FASTHockey.com really could have made some good money by broadcasting the four games this weekend since Duluth, MN isn't really close to any of the four cities sending USHL teams.

So my fellow Stars fans, it appears that the only way we'll be able to follow this tournament is by following the Pointstreak boxscore. Click here to view the USHL Pointstreak page. As you can see, the Lincoln vs. Tri-City game is listed, so I hope that means they will be providing live updates. It's as good as it gets at this point.

These preseason games are mostly for the coaches on each team to evaluate the talent they have on their roster as all USHL clubs will need to cut down to 23 players before the start of the 2012-13 regular season. So this is an opportunity for those players on the proverbial bubble to impress their coaches and hopefully win a spot on the team. Because of that, you normally see a lot of the veteran players held out of these preseason games because they already have a roster spot sewed up. The coaches will want to observe how those first-year players acclimate to the speed and physicality of the USHL game.

Even though the majority of Stars fans will not be able to attend either of these two games, I think it's a great idea to go on a road trip this early on in the preseason to give the players on the team some time to gel and get to know one another. The team just started practicing together this past Monday, and will most likely have only three on-ice practices at the IceBox before jumping on the bus and making the 9.5 hour drive to Duluth, MN.

I will be following these two Stars games as best as I can and will provide updates on the B³ Twitter Page, and also here on the blog with recap articles after each game.

Hockey season is here! Can you believe it? I'm super excited, even if it is just a preseason tournament.